Accepting a truth
by danceupontheair
Summary: No one could talk James and Sirius out of 'testing out' a couple of 'things.' Now they get to deal with the result.
1. Late to breakfast

Disclaimer: The world belongs to J. K. Rowling, I am merely writing a history to go with it.  
  
Sirius was late. Not late as in oh-shit-they're-going-to-kill-me late, but rather I-slept-in-and-they-left-without-me. The tall and messy boy ran to the door of the Great Hall, and stopped. He walked in smoothly as if had intended on being fashionably late. The Slytherins collectively sneered Sirius as he walked past their table and dropped a dead rat on it.  
  
"I don't see why you have to do it. And in a corridor, in the middle of the night no less! There really is no point to the matter!"   
  
James chuckled, "And would you rather that we do it in the prefects bathroom? Care to give us the password?"  
  
Remus hit his head on the table, causing the near-empty pitcher of pumpkin juice to rock slightly. "Too slippery, you'd fall flat on your back within two seconds. Or you would break your bones. Then where would you be?"  
  
"Screwed, I guess," replied Sirius as he sat down to the table. The two boys roared with laughter, while most of the occupants of the great hall rolled their eyes. "No seriously, what is another trip to the hospital wing for broken bones? And in a corridor at night is traditional, and we all know that tradition is the one un-bendable rule."  
  
"Since when is a rule only bendable? You break them all the time." Remus stressed the word break.  
  
"You were late." Peter looked at Sirius. "But I'm with Remus. You could get in trouble"   
  
"Fashionably late, get it right Wormtail."  
  
Peter ignored the comment, but winced at the look James shot him. "Us? In trouble? Wow! I never thought of that?! What a new and frightening experience it must be! All in good fun though. I don't think another detention could really make much difference to anything, really."  
  
"James, stop picking on him, poke him if you must, but be nice."  
  
"Oh Lupin, just shut up. Then maybe Wormtail couldn't agree with you. Besides, since when were you one to back out of doing something as 'rule bending' as this. It isn't as if we are breaking the law."  
  
"Well, the reason they gave me, and, I note, not you, the prefect badge was so that I could exert some control over you," Remus took a mouthful of toast before continuing, "not that it seems to be working"  
  
"Hi, my name is Remus Lupin, and I'm like, such a good boy, look at me! I have a prefect badge and you don't. I'm just like, so smart, and so like totally good!" Remus scowled at the three boys, all laughing at Sirius's playful antics. "Besides, if something goes wrong old chap, you'll be there to help us. If not, it will be good for a laugh, no?"  
  
James struggled to get his laughter under control. "Indeed. Besides, since when has anything gone wrong?"  
  
"There was the time that you got stuck in the - "  
  
"I don't think we will mention that right here, thank you."  
  
"Bit sensitive, are we James?" Sirius snorted at him.  
  
"I wouldn't say sensitive, not with some of the stuff that you've done."  
  
"Good point. I think I'll shut up now."  
  
"Great idea."  
  
Remus raised his voice to be heard over the top of the two boys, arguing like brothers stuck at home with nothing to do. "Well, there was the time that you both turned invisible for a week, heavens knows what you did - "  
  
Distracted, James countered, "you've got to admit, that made history. I didn't even need my invisibility cloak now did I?"  
  
"And the time that Peter tried to turn into a rat and managed to only transform his head - "  
  
"They were calling him Rattus for months!" Sirius snorted, spraying Peter with pumpkin juice.  
  
"HEY!"  
  
"Oh shut up Rattus!"  
  
"Peter."  
  
"Wormtail."  
  
"Peter!" James and Remus's eyes locked, and both laughed as James crinkled his nose and subsequently lost his glasses.  
  
Ignorant, Sirius continued, "would you like the rest of the pumpkin juice on your head, Rattus?"  
  
Peter gave in. "Well, can you please pass me a napkin?"   
  
Sirius sighed, passing him the napkin James had tucked in his pocket. "With language and structures such as that, next thing you know, you'll be just like dear ol' Remus Lupin, prefect and good boy over there. Alone and boring, not unusual for those types. I daresay you will have hard luck trying to find a girl that goes for that sort of thing. But then, you might get lucky."  
  
"Unlike you, who has never had a girlfriend? Despite which, what about the time that Snape found out about us being animagi?" Lupin added spitefully, and smiled with a grim satisfaction when it took moments before Sirius tried to stutter out an answer.  
  
"Well…."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"We aren't exactly going to do anything that bad," Sirius attempted to save face, "not like that, anyway"  
  
"Yeah, we are only going to test out a few new spells and such we found in the old books that the old bat keeps locked in the restricted section," added James, "could be anything you know?"  
  
"Make two people switch personalities - "   
  
"Make trolls out of trees - "  
  
"Grow dragons from seeds - "  
  
"Or thestrals - "  
  
"You know if we went riding together on a thestral, then it would look like we were flying to most people?"  
  
"Interesting."  
  
"Turn your friends into werewolves - " added Peter gleefully, only realizing what he said as three rather dark faces stared him down. He gasped and covered his hands in a rather elaborate show, winking at Sirius and James.  
  
"No Peter."  
  
"Do you think they might have been in there for a reason?" stated Lupin, trying to appear almost unfazed and attempting to gain the upper hand. He smiled inwardly, only to be crushed by James's lack of shame.  
  
"No. That woman just wants them to herself. And I didn't even get to look at half of what was in there. Could be anything.. I've always wondered why she really keeps them all locked up.. one day we should go back there and look at the rest of them. What do you say Sirius?"  
  
"Ye-"  
  
"No." Remus interrupted.  
  
"Alright Lupin, I was just kidding."  
  
"Like hell you were."  
  
"You really don't trust us?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Oh now that's not nice." James gave Remus a slight shove. "You're our friend."  
  
"Fine! Do what you want. You won't listen to me anyway. Just don't hurt yourselves, I'm not cleaning you up again. This time, no blood, fake or otherwise. And I'm not coming."  
  
"Yeah you are, it wouldn't be an adventure if we all weren't there." James shoved Remus again. "Well, it would, but that's not the point. If we get ourselves screwed who do we rely on? Wormtail?" Peter shrank down behind his goblet.  
  
"Point" Remus sighed. "I'd just rather you didn't try it on yourselves."  
  
"Who would you rather have us try it on, Snape?"  
  
"Well, yes, I mean, no! That would be wrong, very wrong." He paused. "Again, as much as I hate to admit it, point."  
  
"I knew you would see it our way." Sirius pulled Remus across the table and into a headlock, resulting in a quick and painful jab in the side with Remus's wand. Various first year Gryfindors looked on with interest. It's not every day that someone is pulled over the top of the table. Each of the curious faces broke into laughter as Sirius reacted to the blow.  
  
"Ouch! What are you trying to do, kill me? In front of all these people?! You'd get yourself arrested!"  
  
"Better if I did it than you. It'd be cleaner, for one. Besides, I can't hang around with you lot for this long without learning a few.. tricks, shall we say?"  
  
Sirius let go quickly and put one hand to his side, one on his head and his head hit the table with a loud *thunk.*  
  
Peter giggled.  
  
James hit him with a piece of toast.  
  
Sirius groaned.  
  
Remus left for the Transfiguration class.  
  
"Oh now is that really necessary Lupin? We have another half hour before we are due in class, thanks to your brilliant idea of being up…" James shuddered as he called to a retreating back and deaf ears, "Early?!" Turning to Sirius, he shoved him back, brining him to full consciousness, "C'mon, and bring Wormtail, we better go after him. You know what he gets like if you leave him like this."  
  
"But I haven't finished!" Peter whined.  
  
"You have now." Sirius grabbed him roughly by the collar and pulled him into a standing position. "Go get your books, and we'll catch up to Lupin."  
  
As James and Sirius ran after Remus, Peter gathered up a stack of toast to tide him over until the next break. He ignored the fact that most of the hall echoed with prolonged laughter as he tripped over his feet and spilt the toast over the stone floor, butter side down. He stood up, brushed himself off and strode out, trying to maintain non-existent dignity while leaving his toast on the ground, now dissolving into the floor by the house-elves magic. 


	2. A class is not a class

Disclaimer: The world belongs to J. K. Rowling, I am merely writing a history to go with it.  
  
"Morning, Professor," Remus greeted the woman sitting at her desk, marking a few last papers before class.   
  
"Morning, Remus, I daresay that James and Sirius got to much for you at the breakfast table again?"  
  
"Nothing out of the ordinary."  
  
"Indeed."  
  
I*CRASH*/I  
  
James and Sirius blundered into the room, managing to trip over at the door and knock over an antique brass birdcage - empty. James ended up sprawled across the Sirius and Sirius had managed to lose a shoe.  
  
"Gerroff!" Exclaimed Sirius, who would have hit James if it wasn't for the fact that his arms were held to the ground by the dead weight on top of him.  
  
"Sorry," James hurried to get himself up, only resulting in him falling over a second time, only this time his pocket croaked.  
  
"Frogs, Mr. Potter? I see that your divination skills are beyond perfect, now who was it that told you we were working with frogs today?" Professor McGonagall looked up at them from her marking.   
  
Sirius grinned at him, wondering how he was going to get himself out of this mess.  
  
"Nobody Professor, it came to me in a dream."  
  
"Then your dreams won't mind telling you the way to your seats."  
  
"No, Professor"  
  
James managed to get to his feet uneventfully and help up Sirius.  
  
"'Bout bloody time," he whispered to James.  
  
"What was that boys?"  
  
"Nothing, Professor"  
  
"Then please, make your way to your seats. Class will begin soon."  
  
Sirius, on all fours, scrambled back into the corridor to find his shoe. Despite his slight dizziness, he not only managed to find it, but he also managed to put back on the right foot. Silently laughing at Sirius's now instinctive dog-like behaviour, James reached over to pick up the birdcage, slipping a frog from his pocket into it. Smiling, he and Sirius pulled on their usual air of superiority and made their way over to their usual seats, nearer to the back of the classroom than the front, and right on the aisle. Remus joined them from the corner, silently laughing at the comic pair.   
  
Almost in perfect unison, the three reached back into their bags and pulled out their books, parchment, quills, inkpots and nameplates, arranging them in order. All three boys placed their nameplate to the front right of their area, and their textbooks to the left. Their paper was laid out directly in front of them and the quill lay across the parchment on an angle. Their inkpot was placed on the left side of their parchment. The three boys smirked at each other as James pulled out the remaining three frogs from his pocket, three lime and lemon tree-frogs that he had ordered through Whizzy-Mail - "The way to whiz your wizarding needs, since 1953" which he deposited one in front of each person. By this time most of the seats were filled. Lily then slid in next to James, smiling, she put her head on his shoulder.   
  
"You weren't at breakfast."  
  
"I wasn't hungry."  
  
"Oh…" he paused slightly, feigning deep thought. "Why not?"  
  
"Should I have been?"  
  
"Yes!"  
  
"Well maybe my stomach isn't as big as yours now is it?"  
  
"Your stomach is just the right size."  
  
"I thought so."   
  
Professor McGonagall shot them one of her looks, silencing the pair of them. Now the only empty seat in the place was next to Remus, right on the aisle, where Peter normally sat.  
  
"Alright, seeing as we are almost all here, I think we can begin the days lesson." Professor McGonagall rose to her feet. "As Mr. Potter had the foresight to discover that our lesson will entail some revision, vanishing frogs. Given the practise that he must have had so he could excel at this lesson, would he be so kind as to demonstrate such a feat?"  
  
"No problem Professor!" James got to his feet with a bang, (aptly supplied by Sirius) and whipped his wand out of his sleeve, before bowing to the front rows and the back row. In his best announcer voice, above the general giggles in the classroom "I will now preform the most amazing of deeds, the most magnificent of - "  
  
"Oh Mr. Potter, save the show and get on with it."  
  
"Yes Professor."  
  
"As I was saying, this frog will now be vanished by my very wa - "  
  
Peter came rushing into the room, bent over double and red-faced. His bag fell to the floor as he gasped for breath.   
  
"Good morning, Mr. Pettigrew. I'm sure your excuse as to why you are so late will be fascinating."  
  
"I.. I… got lost?"  
  
James, Sirius and Remus all buried their hands in their heads and Lily simply giggled at the sight of the other three's exasperation while the rest of the class laughed at the boy in the doorway.  
  
"Mr. Pettigrew, you have been at this school for all these years and you still don't know your way around? Perhaps you should join me in a detention tomorrow night, 7 o' clock. I presume you won't take as long as it took your comrades to find their seat?" McGonagall sat down at her desk as Peter gathered up his belongings and hurried up the stairs to his seat. "Slight modification of the way I will run class today. You are to find the necessary spell and wand movements in your textbook on page one hundred and forty-three, interpret and practise in small groups, I will supervise and give help when required. Please take out your frogs."  
  
Peter was halfway through unpacking his belongings onto the desk in similar fashion to the others, and realised he had not taken out his frog.   
  
"It's in the cage, mate" James whispered down the row, though he need not have as the rest of the class gradually became noisier.  
  
"The.. cage?"  
  
"The cage," Sirius echoed in a pseudo, muggle "ghost" voice. The red faded from Peter's face, replaced by a blanket white.  
  
"He means the birdcage, by the door," Remus pointed him in the direction of the brass stand, emitting loud croaks every so often. "Go get it." Peter ambled over to the cage and opened the little brass door. He reached in, facing the other way with his eyes tightly shut; Disgust was quite clearly painted on his face as he pulled out a tiny but colourful tree frog. Miserable, he went back to his seat and sat down. He placed his frog on the table and put a holding charm on it to keep it in place while he looked up the page with the information on it.  
  
"one.. four.. three.. one.. four.. three.. one.. four.." He muttered under his breath, attempting to find the right page. "three.. one.. four.. three.."  
  
"Why were you so late?"  
  
"Yes, why were you so late? You were gone at least a good half hour, maybe more."  
  
"Don't tell me you actually got lost"  
  
"I.." Peter looked up, stunned at the four faces that were all leaning over to look at him.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You can tell us, you know Wormtail, you can trust us."  
  
"Peter, why were you late?"  
  
"I actually did get lost!" He burst out. "I took one of those staircases that goes somewhere different on Tuesdays, you know, the one near the painting of Alderc the heroic?"  
  
"Not so heroic anymore now is he?" Sirius claimed.  
  
"Yeah, he's just a painting," James agreed.  
  
"You lot," Lily indicated to the group, "You honestly have no respect for history, now do you?"  
  
"Remus is the scholar, not us."  
  
"What's this?" Professor McGonagall stood behind them, "Why are your frogs still visible?"  
  
"Well you see, Professor, that the frogs are still visible because.. because - " James floundered hopelessly.   
  
"Because we can't get this wand movement quite right. It says to flick it up at the end of the point, but we can't get it quite right. Perhaps you could show us?" Lily saved the group's face.  
  
"That would be because you are reading the wand movements incorrectly for this spell. You will find, on closer inspection, that the movements you require are illustrated on the opposite page." Professor McGonagall pointed out.   
  
"Oh, silly us." Lily smiled shamefully at the Professor.   
  
"Perhaps next time you will be more prepared to excuse your lack of work," the Professor moved on to the next group.  
  
The group had no intention of beginning. Instead, they wrote notes to each other on the side of their textbooks, on the desks, on their parchment, on their chairs and on the stairs. Themes varied from what they could vanish when they actually learnt the spell, to who was dating whom, and what dangerous beasts they wanted to meet on their next trip to the shrieking shack. Their efforts were rewarded - a joint detention with Peter was in order. 


	3. Friends and Friendlier

Disclaimer: The world belongs to J. K. Rowling, I am merely writing a history to go with it.  
  
James was walking down the corridor, alone for once. Remus, Sirius and Peter remained behind in the great hall, stuffing their faces with whatever they could eat, and lining their bags with whatever they could carry. However, for once his mind was not on food, or sport. Even the thought of Lily hadn't attempted to enter his mind tonight, a rare thing indeed for James. No, tonight even the random and slightly incoherent babble of drunken portraits and singing statues, as was typical when they (He and Sirius) had been out earlier painting butterbeers into paintings and cohering the statues into expressing themselves through song, otherwise known as the 'Songuendo charm' technique.   
  
However he did smile slightly when the fat lady, obviously in a bad mood, demanded of him the password ("azalea flower") and why he was smiling at her. Obligingly, but not happily, she swung open to reveal the entrance to the Gryfindor common room, decorated in red and gold house regalia Even the flames of the blazing fire reflected house pride, today they were shaped like the Gryfindor mascot, a roaring lion. Checking to make sure there was no one in the room, he dumped his books on the ground beside him, and tucked his wand into his bag. He stood up, let out a loud sigh, the kind that normally attaches itself to stretching, and began to make the trip upstairs to find the books he had stashed in his room. Deciding it was too cold to do anything, he started back down the stairs and walked over to the fireplace. He reached over to poke the fire, when a slim white hand reached over and capped his, a mane of red hair brushed his face and a pair of rose lips kissed his cheek.  
  
Knowingly, James did not even say a word, he turned around and kissed her full on the lips, as they had done many times before, yet each was unlike the last. Passion was there, it always was, but each time brought a spark, a new flame lit to join the others. Pulling apart, they murmured in perfect unison, 'I love you.'  
  
"Why are you back so early?" She whispered in his ear.  
  
"I had something I had to do, what about you?"  
  
"I wasn't hungry. Did you do what you had to do?"  
  
"Yes." James replied in her ear, lying through spun-sugar teeth. He knew he still had to start going through those books he had stashed in Sirius's trunk, upstairs in the boy's dormitory. It wouldn't be long until the old bat started to notice they were missing, after all. However, he chose to abandon all rational for the atmosphere of the moment.  
  
"How long do you think everyone will be?"  
  
"Oh, at least an hour." He playfully licked her ear.  
  
"Stop it!" She giggled. "Alright, come with me, I have something to show you."  
  
James's ears pricked with interest. "What is it?" He went to kiss her again, but she pulled away slightly.   
  
"A surprise." She let go of his shoulders and walked over to a loose stone in the wall. Tapping it, she whispered to it quietly, "IDissendium/I."   
  
James started at the use of one of his prized passwords, but he gave in to his feelings, rather than his thoughts. Lily held out one hand towards him, which he took after recovering from his slight shock. Hand in hand, she led the boy down the third set of stairs leading from the common room. His bag of books and his wand lay on the floor behind one of the red and gold chairs, whose decorative stars shone brighter than usual.  
  
~*~  
  
The common room was near empty for the second time that night. A few of the older students sat huddled around tables near the fire, taking detailed notes on complex subjects and finishing almost-overdue essays. A few of the younger students had fallen asleep on the couch chairs, and half-finished games of exploding snap and wizard's chess were seen lying around. Occasionally one of the sleeping children would let out a quiet snore, but they were, for the most part, dead to the world.   
  
Sirius bounded in first, knocking over a stack of exploding snap cards, resulting in several rather loud explosions. Several of the first and second years awoke, surprised by the deafening sounds of the cards. Sirius stood shamefully to one corner, now joined by Lupin and Peter, all three had their arms laden with assorted cakes and buns, their bags filled with butterbeer and sweets, all results of their quick trip into Hogsmeade before it all closed for the night.   
  
"Come on, move along there ol' chap.." Sirius pushed a couple of the younger children out of the way, to the point where they almost fell on the floor. "Time for bed, you know?" He turned on Remus and Peter, both of which were standing behind the chair that Sirius had claimed from a small girl, "Are you going to sit down or not?"  
  
Remus held up the arm of the child sleeping in the armchair opposite Sirius. "Well this one doesn't seem to be so obliging. He's still fast asleep." He dropped the boy's arm, which fell promptly across the table. Peter reached over to the boy and poked him. The boy simply let out a large amount of air and continued to sleep.  
  
"Easy fixed." Sirius picked the sleeping child up. "I'll just dump him in his bed and he will be none the wiser," he winked. "Just watch my seat, I worked hard to get it." He walked off in the vague direction of the dormitories, obviously slightly affected by the butterbeer he had consumed earlier as he almost walked the pair of them straight into a wall. Remus sat up in his chair, watching with concern for the boy rather than the one carrying him. He sat back in his chair once he was satisfied Sirius made it up the staircase safely. He looked directly ahead of himself to find Peter sitting in Sirius's chair.  
  
Remus raised an eyebrow at Peter, whose attention was captured by the lion in the fire. He cleared his throat, and was happy to note Peter's startled reaction. Seeing the look on Remus's face, he simply muttered a quiet 'right' and got up, pulled over another (now vacated but still warm) armchair to the table, the back of which faced the stairs to the boy's dormitory. Sirius came stumbling back down the stairs, and this time he collapsed into his armchair.  
  
Peter leant over and began to pull out the rest of the contents of his bag. Honeydukes was practically operating from three fabric bags tonight. Sirius leant over and grabbed at a cockroach cluster. Bringing it to his mouth, about to bite into it, he exclaimed, "Where's James?"   
  
A sudden outburst of laugher could be heard quite clearly not two feet away from him. "You didn't notice?"  
  
"Notice what?"  
  
"He hasn't been here all night." Lupin grinned at Sirius.  
  
It took Sirius moments before comprehension dawned on him. "Oh… Shit!" He swore aloud, causing most of the other students to look at him. Peter giggled, then hurriedly stuffed a bun in his face as Sirius shot him a look.  
  
"Look, I'm not all that hungry guys, I think I'll go to bed. I have a bit of a headache anyway." Remus pulled himself to his feet. "Besides, I think that you need to calm down a bit Sirius, you are so worked up didn't even realize that Lily left the great hall before she had eaten anything. You might want to leave some food out when you go to bed."  
  
As he fell back in his chair, Sirius's eyes fell back in his head and the colour drained from his face. Peter got out of his chair rather hurriedly and shrank to the ground. He knelt by the table, stuffed another cream bun in his mouth and grabbed a couple to take with him before trying to crawl away unnoticed.   
  
A loud groan, followed by a heavy and hollow thunk, echoed throughout the common room. It didn't appear to Sirius that they would be able to look through those books together tonight, not while he preferred to spend to spend time with some woman rather than his best friend. The thought of how much trouble they would be in when they were found out did not even cross his mind.   
  
For once in his life, he felt as if he had been betrayed. James had never backed out on plotting before, let alone for such a frivolous reason. Grumbling, he left the food on the table, but grabbed two butterbeers as he stood up. He unscrewed the lid of one, and took a large swig of it. He tucked the other into the crook of his arm, and with one half-drained bottle in his right hand, he swaggered off to bed, cursing under his breath about 'brotherhood' and 'saucy wenches.' 


End file.
